Third Starlighter

In this second book of the Tales of Starlight series, Adrian Masters journeys into the wilderness of the dragon planet of Starlight in search of his brother Frederick. Carrying the comatose body of Marcelle, he has to find medical help for her, but the slave master dragons will kill him on sight if he comes out of hiding. Adrian believes Frederick has set up a wilderness refuge for escaped slaves, so he hopes to join Frederick and devise a plan to rescue the humans enslaved on Starlight. Since Adrian cannot leave Marcelle alone, her nearly lifeless body becomes an anchor, both physically and emotionally as he has to decide to care for her or attempt to rescue the slaves. Adrian has no idea that Marcelle’s spirit has left her body and has traveled to their home planet in search of military help to rescue the slaves. She is able to materialize there in a temporary body that looks corpselike and feels icy cold. Because of her appearance, Governor Orion persecutes her as a sorceress and sentences her to burn at the stake. This sequel to Masters & Slayers is filled with excitement, twists and turns, and thought-provoking dilemmas, which will keep readers turning the pages.

For years, tales of DRAGONS from another world kidnapping and enslaving humans have been circulating in Jason Masters’ world, while for a slave girl named Koren, the stories of a human world seem pure myth. Together, these two teens will need to bridge two planets in order to overthrow the draconic threat and bring the lost slaves home. What if the Legends Are True? Jason Masters doubted the myths that told of people taken through a portal to another realm and enslaved by dragons. But when he receives a cryptic message from his missing brother, he must uncover the truth and find the portal before it’s too late. At the same time, Koren, a slave in the dragons’ realm, discovers she has a gift that could either save or help doom her people. As Jason and Koren work to rescue the enslaved humans, a mystic prophecy surrounding a black egg may make all their efforts futile.

Starlight 3 is third volume of in Patrick Nielsen Haden's original anthology series, which includes short stories from Susanna Clarke, Cory Doctrow, Stephen Baxter, Maureen F. McHugh, and Jane Yolen. Since its debut in 1996, Starlight has been recognized as the preeminent original anthology of science fiction and fantasy. Its stories have won the Nebula Award, the Sturgeon Award, and the Tiptree Award. Starlight 1 itself won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. The series represents the best new short fiction in fantasy and SF. Now, with Starlight 3, award-winning editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden offers a new serving of powerful, original stories. Some are playful, some rigorous, or exuberant, or melancholy; some are set in the world of today, and some amidst the farthest stars or in worlds that never were. "Patrick Nielsen Hayden [is] one of the most literate and historically aware editors in science fiction." --The Washington Post At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Expert swordsman Adrian Masters attempts a dangerous journey to another world to rescue human captives who have been enslaved there by dragons. He is accompanied by Marcelle, a sword maiden of amazing skill whose ideas about how the operation should be carried out conflict with his own. Since the slaves have been in bonds for generations, they have no memory of their origins, making them reluctant to believe the two would-be rescuers, and, of course, the dragons will crush any attempt to emancipate the slaves. Set on two worlds separated by a mystical portal, Masters and Slayers is packed with action.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The final novel from Richard Wagamese, the bestselling and beloved author of Indian Horse and Medicine Walk, centres on an abused woman on the run who finds refuge on a farm owned by an Indigenous man with wounds of his own. A profoundly moving novel about the redemptive power of love, mercy, and compassion--and the land's ability to heal us. Frank Starlight has long settled into a quiet life working his remote farm, but his contemplative existence comes to an abrupt end with the arrival of Emmy, who has committed a desperate act so she and her child can escape a harrowing life of violence. Starlight takes in Emmy and her daughter to help them get back on their feet, and this accidental family eventually grows into a real one. But Emmy's abusive ex isn't content to just let her go. He wants revenge and is determined to hunt her down. Starlight was unfinished at the time of Richard Wagamese's death, yet every page radiates with his masterful storytelling, intense humanism, and insights that are as hard-earned as they are beautiful. With astonishing scenes set in the rugged backcountry of the B.C. Interior, and characters whose scars cut deep even as their journey toward healing and forgiveness lifts us, Starlight is a last gift to readers from a writer who believed in the power of stories to save us.

In this third book of the Tales of Starlight series, Adrian Masters continues his relentless march toward the bitterly cold Northlands of Starlight. Ravaged by a deadly disease and accompanied by two children, Adrian carries Marcelle in a vegetative state, hoping Alaph, king of the Northlands, will supply a way to reunite her near-death body with her wandering spirit. Time is of the essence. Invading soldiers from Major Four are marching toward the Southlands village to do battle against the dragon slave masters, but two great dangers await—the inescapable disease and the unpredictable Benefile, ageless and mysterious white dragons who will kill any infected humans. All the while, Drexel, the murderer of Marcelle’s mother, has taken on an impervious disguise as a male Starlighter and is using hypnotic powers to gain control of Mesolantrum with his sights set on the entire kingdom. Adrian and Marcelle must battle to free the slaves on one world and protect their own world from Drexel’s malevolent plan or else the freed slaves will return to Major Four only to find another slave master. Performing both tasks seems impossible.

Adrian Masters continues his relentless march toward the bitterly cold Northlands of Starlight. Ravaged by a deadly disease and accompanied by two children, Adrian carries Marcelle in a vegetative state, hoping Alaph, king of the Northlands, will supply a way to reunite her near-death body with her wandering spirit. Time is of the essence. Invading soldiers from Major Four are marching toward the Southlands village to do battle against the dragon slave masters, but two great dangers await?the inescapable disease and the unpredictable Benefile, ageless and mysterious white dragons who will kill any infected humans. All the while, Drexel, the murderer of Marcelle's mother, has taken on an impervious disguise as a male Starlighter and is using hypnotic powers to gain control of Mesolantrum with his sights set on the entire kingdom. Adrian and Marcelle must battle to free the slav es on one world and protect their own world from Drexel's malevolent plan or else the freed slaves will return to Major Four only to find another slave master. Performing both tasks seems impossible. Hope remains in the guise of the little Starlighter Regina. Guided by Cassabrie, Starlight's great liberator, Regina hopes to accompany Adrian step by step to thwart the plans of slave masters on both worlds.

A teen’s suspicious death, a shocking police cover-up and a mother’s search for the truth. In 1990, on a November night that hit –28 degrees Celsius, seventeen-year-old Neil Stonechild disappeared only blocks from his mother’s home. His frozen body was found three days later, eight kilometres from where he was last seen in downtown Saskatoon. The police investigation was cursory — no one seemed to wonder about the abrasions on his wrists or the scrapes on his face, or the fact that he was missing a shoe. Neil was drunk and out walking, the police believed, and had died by misadventure. His mother, Stella Bignell, tried her best to push for answers, but no one in authority wanted to listen to a native woman whose sons had often been in trouble with the law. But Stella did not give up, and neither did the only witness, sixteen-year-old Jason Roy, who had seen Neil, beaten and bleeding, in the back of a Saskatoon police cruiser the night he disappeared. Starlight Tour recounts their struggle for justice in the face of indifferent officials, destroyed police files and institutionalized racism. In the decade following Neil’s death, rumours persisted that police sometimes drove natives beyond the edge of town and abandoned them. But it was only in January 2000, when two more men were found frozen to death, that the truth about Neil Stonechild’ s fate began to emerge. A third man, Darrell Night, survived his “starlight tour,” and lived to tell the tale. And soon one of the country’s most prominent aboriginal lawyers, Donald Worme, was on the case. With exclusive co-operation from the Stonechild family, Worme, and other key players, and information not yet revealed in the press coverage, Starlight Tour is an engrossing and damning portrait of rogue cops, racism, obstruction of justice and justice denied, not only to a boy and his mother but to the entire country’s native community.